Onboarding new employees with answers from day one

Someone who is new wants to get things right. How do you report an incident, which template applies to the weekly plan and where is the procedure for keys and alarms? The answers usually exist already, in the staff handbook, on the intranet or in a folder someone pointed out on the first day. The difficulty is knowing where, and it feels awkward to ask the same colleague for the third time in one morning.

Onboarding therefore often rests on a few experienced people. They are happy to help, but every question interrupts their own work. The answers can also vary depending on who you ask, and what is said in passing is hard to remember a week later.

Answers on their own

An AI assistant connected to your own documents changes that. The new employee asks the question in their own words, when it comes up, and gets an answer based on the organisation’s procedures. The answer shows which document it comes from. So the newcomer gets help in the moment and learns where the information lives at the same time. After a few weeks they find most things on their own.

It also affects confidence. It is easier to ask an assistant about something you feel you ought to know than to ask a colleague once more. Questions come earlier, uncertainty is shorter and fewer things are done by guesswork.

The right permissions from the start

New employees should see what applies to their role. An assistant must therefore never become a shortcut around permissions. It should follow the same roles as your other systems and only answer from documents the person is allowed to read. Onboarding can then start straight away, without anyone having to think about what is appropriate to show.

It is also worth thinking through which documents the assistant should use. An onboarding assistant works best with a defined set, such as the staff handbook, the procedures for the person’s own unit and the templates used most often. When those documents are kept up to date, so are the answers, and responsibility for the content stays with the people who own the procedures.

More time for what is not in the procedures

When the simple questions get answered on their own, time with colleagues becomes more valuable. The supervisor does not have to show where the template is one more time. That time can go to what is not written in any procedure, such as how to handle a difficult situation, which judgements are usually made and why the work is done the way it is. That kind of knowledge is best passed on between people.

For the organisation, onboarding also becomes more consistent. Every new employee gets the same answers from the same material, whichever day they start and whoever happens to be in.

How it works in iSearch

With iSearch you set up an assistant for onboarding and staff questions and connect it to your own documents. Every answer shows its source, and if there is no supporting material, that is stated. You choose which documents the assistant reads and who may use it, and sign-in uses SSO and MFA. The assistant is available on the computer and on the phone, and the whole chain can run in your own environment.

Read more about AI for HR, about when experienced staff leave and about how iSearch is used, or book a walkthrough.